About

Quad Cities artist Terry Rathje will create a sculptural installation on the fourth floor of the Figge Art Museum exploring the interaction of function and form in structures designed digitally and built by hand. Inspired by stupas, pagodas, ziggurats and roadside shrines, these structures are a mix of sculpture and architecture whose design may have a visual impact completely unrelated to their use. The show will include movable structures made of repurposed materials as well as a structure created onsite that visitors will be invited to enter. “After several years of building structures such as this, which reference vernacular architecture, it was natural to imagine what many of them together might look like as a village, one that might pick up and move to a new location if conditions warranted.” The installation will be designed and constructed with the collaboration of designer Monica Correia and artist Steve Banks.

Terry Rathje is Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at Western Illinois University. He received his MFA in 3D Design from the University of Iowa, and has created site-specific sculptures in many venues throughout the region, in addition to exhibiting his constructions and assemblage pieces. Monica Correia is Associate Professor of Design at the University of Iowa. A native of Brazil, she has extensive experience as a designer in Brazil and in the U.S. Quad Cities artist Steve Banks, a graduate of Florida State University, creates multi-media works that combine sculptural and painted elements.